"Truth is the first casualty of war" is a quote attributed to everyone from Aeschylus to Alfred E. Neuman. Regardless of authorship (and prescience), the tragedy of Newtown has seen Fact and Reason fall immediately thereafter. While Truth may have been done in by any number of suspects in times of actual War, Fact and Reason were brutally murdered by those who were purported to love them best, the "journalists" of the Main Stream Media.
I, Media
Thanks to technology, the average individual with a Smart Phone, Blackberry or similar device, can record, video and send current events faster and easier than the best reporter in the field 40 years ago. Unfortunately, Journalism hasn’t kept up with the Tech Sector. As a result, incompetents, morons and nincompoops have become today’s "Citizen Journalist". Along with their own blog and a YouTube account, they are this generations Murrow, Cronkite, Huntley – Brinkley, all from the comfort of their parent’s basement. Their quality and content tend to speak for themselves. At least give them an A for effort and an inquiring mind. Sadly, the Pros have used the lack of formal training of the "bloggers" as camouflage, to excuse whatever Journalism standards, training or ethics they may have learned. This is their Big Fail.
As craven as the politicians who leapt in front of the funeral processions to preen and pose, "journalists" from every print and broadcast source tossed any residual vestiges of objective reporting to reveal Full Monty their ignorance, prejudice and progressive agenda. In wanton efforts to satisfy their addiction to Instant Gratification, some of the most egregious examples of factual misrepresentation, woefully inaccurate reporting, emotive code words and blatant editorializing filled the airwaves and pages everywhere. Only the "New Media", the Internet with certain web sites and quality bloggers were the sources of accurate information as the MSM went for days with mangled stories, hyper-accusations, hearsay and innuendo exacerbating the emotional revulsion, a natural by-product of such a heinous crime.
After 47 years in the broadcast and print media, I found this is more to be expected than surprising.
Of course, every one of the Ruling Class and the Blow-Dried Set has a solution: reinstate the Assault Weapons Ban, arm teachers, ban hi-cap mags, cops in every school ("National Guard!" – Barbara Boxer, Duh/Absurdistan), "deeper" background checks and longer wait times for firearm purchases, "closing the gun show loophole", blah, yadda, etc.
Conspicuous by its absence is any in-depth investigation of whether psychotropic drugs, anti-depressants or other SSRI prescription medication was being used by the perpetrator. Ritalin, Prozac, Luvox, Zoloft are some of the popular, widely prescribed drugs whose side-effects can be devastating. Similarly, MSM reporters, commentators and pundits apparently haven’t bothered to educate themselves – or inform their viewers, listeners or readers – of the readily available and damning facts found here. For those cursed with a slow Internet connection, here is an incomplete sample:
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Huntsville, Alabama – February 5, 2010: 15-year-old Hammad Memon shot and killed another Discover Middle School student Todd Brown. Memon had a history for being treated for ADHD and depression. He was taking the antidepressant Zoloft and "other drugs for the conditions." He had been seeing a psychiatrist and psychologist.
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Kauhajoki, Finland – September 23, 2008: 22-year-old culinary student Matti Saari shot and killed 9 students and a teacher, and wounded another student, before killing himself. Saari was taking an SSRI and a benzodiazapine. He was also seeing a psychologist.
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Dekalb, Illinois – February 14, 2008: 27-year-old Steven Kazmierczak shot and killed five people and wounded 21 others before killing himself in a Northern Illinois University auditorium. According to his girlfriend, he had recently been taking Prozac, Xanax and Ambien. Toxicology results showed that he still had trace amount of Xanax in his system. He had been seeing a psychiatrist.
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Jokela, Finland – November 7, 2007: 18-year-old Finnish gunman Pekka-Eric Auvinen had been taking antidepressants before he killed eight people and wounded a dozen more at Jokela High School in southern Finland, then committed suicide.
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Cleveland, Ohio – October 10, 2007: 14-year-old Asa Coon stormed through his school with a gun in each hand, shooting and wounding four before taking his own life. Court records show Coon had been placed on the antidepressant Trazodone.
There are many – too many – more.
I have seen no reports Lanza’s medication was being monitored periodically, as required, by a psychiatrist nor I have seen reports that periodic blood levels were being taken on him as required. Medication is to be given in conjunction with cognitive behavior counseling – yet there is no mention of this. 85% of adults in the US are on some type of psychiatric medication – greater than any population in the entire WORLD. If anything needs regulation, it is the drugs, not the guns.
Surely you've seen the noted side effects for his meds, right? Fanapt (Iloperidone): Psychiatric side effects including restlessness, aggression, and delusion have been reported frequently. Hostility, decreased libido, paranoia, anorgasmia, confusional state, mania, catatonia, mood swings, panic attack, obsessive-compulsive disorder, bulimia nervosa, delirium, polydipsia psychogenic, impulse-control disorder, and major depression. Somehow this doesn’t raise the curiosity of the 4th Estate. Could it be Big Pharma’s advertising budget has an influence felt in the News Room? Watch the ABCNBCCBS News this evening. Check the sponsors. And trust me: the Sales Dept talks to the News and Programming Depts. Been there; heard that.
As this is being written (12/21/12), there are no reports, results or enlightening discussions or serious investigations in progress to determine if SSRI drugs were involved, despite the occasional reference to reports the killer had "mental problems". This failure to report the historical pharmacological aspect of previous mass killings – with possible involvement in the Newtown murders – has allowed the MSM and politicians to focus the issue entirely on guns– when the guns were no more at fault than a Chevy SUV driven by a drunk that crashes and kills a family of 8. Is there a rush to ban Chevy SUVs? Are Chevy SUVs declared illegal? A return to Prohibition? Limiting parents to only3 children to minimize the carnage?
Only a fool will blame the tool.
So why the mass expectorating on guns? Because, egged on by a complicit media with an anti-freedom agenda, aggressive ignorance and uncontrolled emotion has taken control of the narrative. The practical solutions are politically impossible and the political solutions are practically worthless.
To date, there has been no solution offered that resolves the problem without violating personal liberty, freedom or property rights – in essence, those very things the government has been instituted among men to protect.
Examples include:
"Assault weapons": the term does not apply honestly or accurately in any aspect of this discussion (although the media uses it incessantly).
"Hi cap clips": Properly called "magazines", a limit on these to 20 rounds or 10 hypocritically exposes the supporter merely to a lower number of bodies. It is a red herring. In a Free Society, the "need" for such implements is irrelevant. It is a matter of free choice by a peaceful individual.
Gun Free School Zones, limited number of weapons permitted to be purchased ("one gun a month") and similar flaccid, intellectually bankrupt ideas have already been proven ineffectual at best or fatally harmful to children, students, teachers, professors, movie goers and others.
Personally, I second the idea of replacing "gun control" with "gun safety" -- effective immediately, required gun safety and marksmanship classes in every government school. They can be scheduled right after sex ed. If a student is old enough to be instructed in safe sex, s/he is old enough to be trained in the safe handling of firearms. Both disciplines could save their life.
Any "National Debate" and subsequent "agreements" must affirmatively answer the question: Had this law/regulation been in effect prior to Dec 12, would it have prevented the carnage? Anything less is a delusional exercise in futility. There are over 20,000 gun laws in America today. Politicians never explain how more laws will make criminals obey them. Not one – or any new one – can take tragedy out of our future any more than we can legislate a perfect society.
December 25, 2012
Brian Wilson [send him mail], nationally ignored talk show host and occasional LRC un-indicted co-contributor, is currently annoying miniscule audiences in a number of markets from his technically challenged studios safely outside the dictatorship of Toledo.
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